Career Treks - Energy in Houston, TX

Tanmay is a first year student at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Prior to business school, he spent 4 years working with Shell. He has worked in several roles including internal consulting, project management and engineering design for major oil and gas projects at various locations across Asia. Tanmay graduated from IIT Madras in 2009 with a bachelors and masters in Chemical engineering. He is an active member of the Dartmouth Energy Collaborative and the Tuck Soccer Club.

Last week, 13 first year MBA students travelled to Houston for the Tuck Energy Trek. The energy trek was in the planning for over a month and we were all very excited to finally get on a plane. The flight was delayed but that did not dampen our spirits. Everyone was excited and ready to meet Chevron early Thursday morning. We then visited Schlumberger business consulting office in the afternoon.

My favorite part of the trek was Thursday evening when Tuckies in Houston welcomed us with an ‘Energy Trek Happy Hour’. The great reception we received from Tuck alumni was no surprise. We have come to expect it from our interactions with the Tuck alumni over the past few months. All of us had great conversations with the alumni and heard some great stories from their time at Tuck.

Friday was a busy day with visits to Bain, BCG and McKinsey in the morning, afternoon and evening respectively. We had great interactions at all the three offices with engaging discussions in small groups. The heavy presence of energy in the Houston offices of all the firms was evident from the interactions. Given that everyone in the group was interested in energy, the discussions ranged from broad topics such as future energy scenarios to focused discussions on specific projects by consultants at the Houston offices. We were very happy to see not only Tuckies but everyone in the offices welcome us and discuss their experiences of working and living in Houston.

The opportunity to meet people at the offices and talk to them in small groups enabled all of us understand the culture at each firm as well as develop great relationships. A big thank you to the Tuckies who made the visit to the Houston offices possible. The trek received an overwhelming positive response from all the firms as they really appreciated the group travelling all the way to Houston from Hanover. We had a fun Friday evening to wrap up the trek with a delicious Tex Mex dinner at El Teimpo. The energy in the group is high after the trek and we all are looking forward to the upcoming recruiting season with excitement.